Time management: Stop matching socks. Just stop doing it. Get HOURS of your life back.

If you are a household of three or four persons, and one person is largely responsible for the laundry like my friend Madame X… do what she does: Stop matching socks.

Buy a decorative basket, and throw your socks in it. Let the wearer find two that match. Sock caretakers waste a lot of energy because it’s a time consuming chore involving multiple steps:

Step 1: Basic sorting by color/fabric

Step 2: Unballing the socks before loading them in the washing machine

Step 3: Transferring the washed wet socks to the dryer

Step 4: Removing the dried sock, and making three or four piles of each person’s socks

Step 5: Matching the socks.

That last step is a killjoy. A common launderer has to do the first four steps anyway (minus the unballing), but matching the socks is unique to socks alone. Unless you wear a LOT of mittens or gloves, socks are a match made in hell for most people.

OH! Another selling point for turning in your “I match socks!” badge of honor is: You suck at it. We all do.

There are always “leftover” socks. Lost socks. “These match close enough” socks. One worn out, one almost new socks. “He’ll never notice the toes are different” socks. Face it: You can BARELY match socks on your best day.

You’ve already taken the first step by setting aside the loners, and putting them in a special place until the “other” sock turns up. (It won’t, FYI). TAKE THE PLUNGE!

Stop.
Matching.
Socks.

The obsessive compulsive version of this solution can be found at your nearest Wash Dry Fold Laundromat. Call and check pricing, as it does vary. With this solution, you’ll just pay someone else to match your socks, and all you have to do is put them away.